Tuesday, October 24, 2006

In 1992, twenty years after the release of his milestone 'Harvest,' Neil Young issues a sequel, 'Harvest Moon.' It becomes his first million-seller since 1979's 'Rust Never Sleeps.'

There is one artist that I have done to death on this site and that is the shockmeister himself, Alice Cooper. One could conclude that homercat likes his Coop and one would be correct. Past posts include this one and this other one. If you are compiling a Halloween compilation for a party or other reasons then a failure to include any Alice material would be a sham. One of the scariest things about Alice is his ultra conservative views, for example recently opening a christian summer camp or being a Bush supporter. Still he is the master of the creepy song.

I mentioned earlier the ultra creepy album DaDa which seems to be a concept album of sorts. There seems to be a recurring theme about the father and the brother that is kept locked away. I've already said the opening track is very spooky and it doesn't end there. 1983's Dada, reunited Cooper with Bob Ezrin, who produced most of his '70's albums. It turned out to be Cooper's strongest album in a decade. Alice was still struggling with alcoholism at this point, and the tone of this album is rather dark. His trademark shock lyrics have an unsettlingly serious undertone on "No Man's Land" and "Pass The Gun Around". The gruesome songs are dressed up in lush arrangements including prominent strings and keyboards. "Former Lee Warmer" is rather spooky, almost supernatural sounding, conveying the feel of loneliness and darkness. This is right in with the context of the song, which talks about a brother being locked up in an upstairs room of a house to which only the "storyteller" has possession. The final track "Pass the gun around" deals with the subject of wasting time and getting drunk - feeling like there is nothing worth living for . It might almost have a biographical aspect to it, considering Alice's position at the time. The song has an underlying sadness and despair to it and when the song ends with the sound of a gun going off it really does leave the hairs on the back of your neck standing up. You also get a sense of the turmoil in Alice's life at the time. Dada is an overlooked masterpiece and many Cooper fans will tell you it's one of his best albums. I would rank it in the top 5 myself.Former Lee Warmer by Alice CooperPass the Gun Around by Alice Cooper (rs)Buy It

Here's a song off of another highly overlooked album. It's not really a spooky song but it's kind of neat opening with a spooky organ riff. Everytime I hear it I see visions of all these creepy looking skeletons dancing around in a maniacal frenzy. Sounds like Halloween to me.Skeletons in the Closet by Alice Cooper Buy It

A few more must have creeptastic Cooper tunes to round off this post.Ballad of Dwight FryBuy It

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MP3s that will appear on this blog will be available for only a week or so(usually far less) and are here for sampling purposes only. It is not my intention to violate copyrights. My only goal is to share my love/hate relationship with music and to expose people to music they may be unfamiliar with. If you are the creator or copyright owner of a song or anything else that might be posted here, please CONTACT ME by sending an e-mail to homercat at shaw dot ca if you wish to have it removed. I don't know why someone would want me to quit promoting their music for free and therefore putting money in their pockets by getting people to buy their stuff, but I will quit if you e mail me.

Most importantly, if you like an artist you hear here , you should definitely do your best to take the knowledge you gain here and go out and BUY THEIR ALBUMS to help support the artist.